Centurion Lounge vs Delta Sky Club: Which Door Is Worth Using

Pick the Centurion Lounge if you fly several airlines and want the better food and drink: it takes any carrier, but there are only 16 U.S. airports with one. Pick the Delta Sky Club if you fly Delta from a hub or connect a lot: there are 54 clubs at 36 U.S. airports, and connecting passengers can walk in at any time.

If you can get into both, use the Centurion Lounge where there is one and the Sky Club everywhere else. That covers more ground than you might think, because 14 of the 16 Centurion airports also have a Sky Club.

Below, the two networks are compared on reach, entry routes, price, guests, timing and food. Rules and prices are as listed on delta.com and americanexpress.com in October 2026. For the lounges that beat both, see our ranking of the best airport lounges in the world.

Where you will find them

Delta lists 54 Sky Clubs at 36 airports in the 50 states, plus one each in San Juan and at Tokyo Haneda. The hubs are stacked: Atlanta has eight clubs, Detroit five, and Boston and Minneapolis three each.

Those counts leave out Delta One Lounges, a separate, higher tier at New York JFK, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle. They have their own entry rules and are not part of this comparison.

American Express lists Centurion Lounges at 16 U.S. airports, plus a smaller Sidecar bar at Las Vegas. Abroad it runs its own lounges at London Heathrow, Hong Kong, Tokyo Haneda and Amsterdam, and its lounge finder lists eight more cities abroad, from Sydney to Stockholm.

One of the 16 is shut for now. Amex says the Philadelphia lounge closed on October 16, 2026 for an expansion and should reopen by the end of 2027. Newark, Boston and a Charlotte Sidecar are listed as coming soon.

Only Houston and Las Vegas have a Centurion Lounge and no Sky Club. Check the Las Vegas airport page if you connect there, since the Sidecar has a tighter 90-minute window.

Edge: Sky Club. More than twice as many airports, and the only choice at most Delta hubs.

Who gets in, and on which flights

The Centurion Lounge has exactly one key: an eligible American Express card. Platinum, Business Platinum and Corporate Platinum holders get in on a same-day flight on any airline. The Centurion Card gets in too.

The Delta SkyMiles Reserve card also opens the Centurion Lounge, but only with a same-day boarding pass for a Delta-marketed or Delta-operated flight.

The Sky Club has many keys, and every one needs a same-day ticket on Delta or an eligible partner. Annual memberships are sold only to Medallion members. A same-day Delta One ticket gets you in, and so do Medallion members flying Premium Select or Delta One internationally. Our guide to Delta’s premium cabins covers which ticket includes what.

Delta’s house rules shut out Delta Main Basic tickets at all times. From January 19, 2027, Basic versions of its premium cabins lose access too, unless the traveler has another way in.

Partner status works too. LATAM Business Class passengers and LATAM’s top elites can use any Sky Club, and so can WestJet Business Class passengers. SkyTeam Elite Plus members get in on same-day international SkyTeam flights in any cabin, with one guest.

The two networks meet at the top. Delta lists Centurion Card members among the few groups exempt from its 3-hour rule, along with Delta 360 and Lifetime members. Centurion Card guests pay $50 each at the Sky Club, as Platinum guests do.

Edge: Centurion on which flights count, because a Platinum card works on any airline. Edge: Sky Club on ways in, because you can buy, fly or earn your way in without an Amex card.

What a year of access costs

Delta charges $695 a year (or 69,500 miles) for an Individual membership and $1,495 (or 149,500 miles) for Executive. Both include unlimited visits on days you fly Delta. You must hold Medallion status to buy either.

Paying in miles works out to 1 cent per mile on both tiers, since Delta prices each one at 100 miles per dollar. That is a fixed rate, so it is worth it only if your miles are worth less than a cent elsewhere.

Amex sells no Centurion membership and no day pass, so the price of entry is the card’s annual fee. That is $895 for the Platinum Card and $650 for the Delta Reserve, which only works on Delta flights.

Neither network sells a walk-up pass anymore. Delta has stopped selling single-visit passes, and existing ones are honored only until the date printed on them.

Edge: Even. The cheapest door depends on who you are: Medallion members can buy the Sky Club outright, while everyone else needs a card for either.

Bringing guests

At a U.S. Centurion Lounge, Platinum holders pay $50 per adult guest and $30 per child aged 2 to 17. Lap infants are free. Every guest must be on the same flight as the cardholder.

Spending $75,000 in a calendar year on a Platinum account unlocks two free guests per visit for the rest of that year, all of the next, and until January 31 after that. Delta Reserve holders pay the same $50 and $30 fees, with a maximum of two guests.

Sky Club Individual members pay $50 (or 5,000 miles) per guest, up to two. Executive members bring two guests or their immediate family free, and pay $50 each for two more.

That makes the Executive upgrade simple math. It costs $800 more than Individual, which is 16 guest visits at $50. If you bring a guest more than 16 times a year, Executive pays for itself.

Edge: Sky Club. Executive membership is the only route here that makes two guests free without a spending target.

Entry windows and visit caps

Both networks open the door 3 hours before your departure. The difference is the connection: Delta lets connecting passengers into a Sky Club at any time, while Amex allows 5 hours before a connecting flight.

Amex will not admit you after you land unless you have a connecting flight the same day. Delta says a delay does not cost you entry, as long as you arrive within 3 hours of the original departure time.

Caps run the other way. Platinum holders get unlimited Centurion visits but only 10 Sky Club visits per Medallion Year. Delta Reserve holders get 15. Both cards lift the Sky Club cap after $75,000 in purchases in a calendar year.

Delta counts every Sky Club entry within 24 hours of the first as one visit, so a connection on the same trip does not burn two.

Edge: Sky Club on timing, for the open door on connections. Edge: Centurion on caps, since a card gets unlimited visits there.

Food, drink and the room itself

Amex sells the Centurion Lounge on its kitchen. Its Culinary Collective menus come from a team of celebrity chefs at select lounges, and the wine list is picked by sommelier Helen Johannesen.

The lounge at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, beside Gate E11, adds outdoor terraces and a craft whiskey bar. Signature cocktails are standard across the network.

Delta promises complimentary cocktails, fresh food and free high-speed Wi-Fi in every Sky Club. Some clubs, including the B18 club in Atlanta, also have a Grab and Go counter, a snack-to-go option instead of the full club.

Reviewers lean the same way. In an April 2026 ranking of U.S. lounge networks, InsideHook called the Sky Club “more pedestrian” than Delta’s own Delta One Lounges, while crediting Amex’s recent food upgrades.

Edge: Centurion. It is built around the food and bar, while the Sky Club is built around being there at every Delta gate.

Who should pick which

A Platinum card counts toward both lists, which is why so many travelers end up comparing the two at the same airport. If that is you, the Centurion visit is free and uncapped, while each Sky Club visit uses one of your ten.